Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News
In the DeFi world, Uniswap has never lacked imitators, but recently, a batch of new projects has begun trying to build something different on top of Uniswap.
Some of them focus on trading fees, some attempt to redistribute arbitrage profits, some explore new liquidity management methods, and others hope to give token trading more complex execution rules.
Behind these projects is a common technical keyword: Hook.
Hook is not a new feature that Uniswap recently launched. As early as January 2025, when Uniswap v4 officially went live, it was already one of the core innovations of that version. Now, projects built around Hook continue to emerge, bringing this originally developer-oriented technical concept into the view of more crypto investors.
This article will review 8 relatively popular Hook-related projects recently (not investment recommendations): Hookr, StonkBrokers, What The Hook, Bordrless, The Standard Reserve, Programmable, Claus, and Fables Finance, to see how developers are using Hook to expand the possibilities of onchain trading.
What is Hook? Installing "custom rules" on Uniswap trading pools
Simply put, Uniswap provides basic trading infrastructure, while Hook allows developers to write additional operating rules for specific trading pools.
In Uniswap v4, Hook is an external smart contract attached to a liquidity pool. It can execute custom logic before and after operations such as pool creation, adding or removing liquidity, and trading, allowing developers to design different rules for different markets.
For example, fees can be adjusted as the market changes, trades can trigger rewards, and liquidity pools can also connect to specialized pricing or order mechanisms.
Behind the hype: threefold risks of early projects
Of course, compared with mature DeFi protocols, some Hook ecosystem projects currently attracting attention are still in the product and market validation stage.
The first is technical and smart contract risk. Hook can execute custom logic within the trading process, but this also expands the scope of code that needs to be reviewed. The fact that Uniswap v4's infrastructure has undergone development and testing does not mean that any third-party Hook automatically inherits the same level of security. Complex trading logic may also lead to unexpected execution outcomes. Custom accounting, external oracles, dynamic fees, and upgradeable permissions can all affect trading and liquidity security.
The second is market liquidity and price volatility risk. Early tokens may see significant price swings from small amounts of buying and selling because of smaller trading pools. Investors should not only pay attention to token price and market capitalization, but also examine actual tradable liquidity, holder concentration, bundling levels, token minting permissions, and the trading behavior of large holders.
The last is the risk of a disconnect between product value and token value. Even if a Hook can implement useful functions, that does not mean the token it issues will necessarily capture protocol revenue. The trading volume, fees, buyback mechanisms, or revenue distribution promoted by a project all need to be carefully considered.
In particular, it should be noted that being deployed on Uniswap v4 does not equal obtaining Uniswap's official endorsement; using Hook technology does not mean a project has established a sustainable business model.
Therefore, the following projects are more suitable as an early ecosystem watchlist rather than investment recommendations.
Several Hook-related projects worth watching
Hookr
Hookr's focus is making it easier for developers and project teams to combine, deploy, and use Hooks. The platform runs on Robinhood Chain and supports new token issuance as well as the creation of new Uniswap v4 pools for existing assets. Creators can choose Hook Blocks such as dynamic fees, anti-sniping, automatic burning, and LP rewards to configure different rules for different pools.
Its product scope has already extended to Builder (creating pools with Hooks or deploying Hooks), a Hook directory, an SDK, and HookrScan (for ratings). From this perspective, Hookr's appeal lies not only in issuing tokens, but also in whether it can lower the barrier to using Hooks: letting traders understand the rules, letting developers reuse modules, and letting other products connect to these markets.
However, the more composable the functions are, the more necessary it is to verify the configuration of specific pools. The official website also clearly states that the contracts have undergone adversarial review but have not yet received an external audit.
According to GMGN data, the Hookr token HOOKR currently has a market capitalization of $26.5 million, with a peak market capitalization of $31.43 million.
StonkBrokers
StonkBrokers is a DeFi infrastructure and experimental suite running on Robinhood Chain, focused on stock tokens, Uniswap v4 Hooks, and liquidity pools.
It combines DeFi tools with tokenized U.S. stocks on Robinhood Chain, while also offering an NFT community, Launchpad, and incubation functions. The team claims to play the role of an "onchain Y Combinator" through Special Projects, providing early projects with rails, liquidity, and community distribution.
On October 14 Beijing time, StonkBrokers used Uniswap v4 Hook functionality and collaborated with Hookr to create a new type of token, "Pair Token," namely: a fused, auto-compounding ERC-20.
The principle is to fuse two tokens into one new token (for example, ETH + NVDA = ETHNVDA, or NVDA + TSLA = NVDATSLA). Each pair token represents a proportional share of the corresponding full-range Uniswap v4 liquidity pool. In terms of fees, minting and redemption are free. For compounding, a 10% fee is charged on LP fees, used for STONKBROKER buybacks.
According to GMGN data, STONKBROKER currently has a market capitalization of $15 million, with a peak market capitalization of $95.75 million on August 12.
What The Hook
What The Hook (WTH) has a relatively clear product entry point: redistributing arbitrage profits between trading pools.
In AMM trading, different liquidity pools may experience temporary price differences due to trading activity. After arbitrage traders discover these differences, they can profit by buying and selling, and prompt prices across different markets to converge again.
What What The Hook hopes to change is not the act of arbitrage itself, but who ultimately receives the arbitrage profits.
According to its official documentation, What The Hook uses a Uniswap v4 Hook on Robinhood Chain to check price differences between related trading pools, and when execution conditions are met and there is still profit after deducting related costs, it executes arbitrage and distributes the actual profits obtained.
Its documentation lists two profit distribution methods:
WTH's own trading pool: traders receive 10% of captured arbitrage profits, and the WTH treasury receives 90%.
Third-party integrated trading pools: by default, 5% of profits go to traders, 45% to the liquidity pool, 40% to the WTH treasury, and 10% to referral partners.
It should be emphasized that these proportions refer to successfully captured arbitrage profits, and the distribution ratios for specific partner deployments can be adjusted.
WTH's business logic is that if more third-party trading pools integrate its Hook, the protocol may generate revenue from more arbitrage activity. But it also faces practical limitations: arbitrage opportunities do not appear in every trade, and competitive arbitrage mechanisms, trading costs, market depth, and the number of integrated pools will all affect final returns.
More importantly, revenue received by the WTH treasury does not mean that WTH token holders directly receive corresponding dividends.
According to GMGN data, WTH currently has a market capitalization of $6.4 million.
Programmable (@ProgrammableHQ)Programmable is a token and custom project launch platform built on Uniswap v4, offering a no-code modular launch method as well as custom launch interfaces for developers. The platform currently supports the Ethereum mainnet and the Robinhood Chain network.
The platform primarily offers two paths:
The first is Module Mode: users select compatible modules on the website and configure parameters, without needing to write a complete smart contract themselves.
The second is Custom Launch: developers can use their own tokens, Hooks, or other supporting contracts to prepare a project launch through the API.
Both it and Hookr are lowering the barrier to deploying customized markets. For platforms like these, long-term competitiveness may depend more on module quality, integration capabilities, and actual usage, rather than just short-term launch volume.
As of the time of writing, among tokens issued through Programmable, ranked by market capitalization, the Claus token (see the introduction below) has reached a market cap of $6.42 million, and Programmable's official token V4 on the Robinhood Chain network currently has a market cap of approximately $4.64 million. Another project, Temo, has a market cap of $450,000.
Claus
Claus (CLAUS) is an experimental project built on an Ethereum Uniswap v4 Hook. Its core feature is that after the token is issued, functions can be added, modified, or removed by updating the Hook contract, without needing to reissue the token. The CLAUS token was issued through Programmable.
Fables
Fables Finance is a decentralized exchange built on Robinhood Chain using Uniswap v4 Hooks, combining a ve(3,3) token economic model with a programmable trading pool mechanism, aiming to improve the flexibility of liquidity incentives and trading fee distribution.
Its core feature is the use of Hooks to set dynamic fees for different trading pools, adjusting trading fees based on conditions such as market volatility to improve the return structure for liquidity providers. At the same time, Fables introduces a ve(3,3) mechanism that combines token locking, governance voting, and liquidity incentives, allowing participants to influence incentive distribution.
The Standard Reserve
The Standard Reserve uses Hooks for an on-chain monetary policy experiment. Its designated ETH/STANDARD trading pool tracks net ETH flows, and a "central bank" contract adjusts issuance accordingly: sustained inflows correspond to issuance expansion and reserve accumulation, while outflows correspond to issuance contraction, combined with a buyback-and-burn mechanism.
According to GMGN data, the STANDARD token currently has a market cap of $26.17 million.
Bordrless
Bordrless requires separate explanation, as it uses a self-developed Hook mechanism on Solana and is not directly built on Uniswap v4 Hooks.
It builds its own token standard, DEX, and launch platform on Solana, allowing developers to write custom rules for token transfers, minting, burning, and trading.
For example, developers can design a mechanism in which, when a token transaction occurs, part of the amount automatically enters a designated account and part of the tokens are burned; fee rules can also be changed based on conditions such as holding time and market state.
Its approach is to give tokens themselves richer programmable capabilities, while carrying trading and issuance activity through a supporting DEX and Launchpad.
As of the time of writing, only 2 tokens issued through the Bordrless Launchpad have a market cap between $100,000 and $200,000, with the rest ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
According to GMGN data, the Bordrless token BORDR currently has a market cap of $6.4 million.
Summary
From these product paths, it can be seen that Hooks are enabling trading pools to take on more functions: combining issuance rules, distributing arbitrage profits, reserve mechanisms, providing governance signals, and responding to the market risks of different assets.
What is more worth observing next is whether custom rules create real value? Are there external users or projects willing to keep using them? And can these usage activities form verifiable protocol revenue?
There may be more and more projects that can write Hooks, but projects that can build real businesses on Hooks still need time to be filtered out.